The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has granted preliminary approval for a class action settlement agreement resulting from the mass arrests of anti-police brutality protesters on Nov. 5, 2010 in Oakland, Calif.

The NYPD is seeking to overturn Judge Rakoff’s ruling in favor of the protestors — attend the hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The documents show that DHS, the sprawling Federal agency ostensibly created to combat terrorism after the September 11 attacks, routinely spies on peaceful First Amendment activities and required daily briefing on the extent of media attention being given to Occupy Wall Street activities.

Department of Homeland Security documents obtained recently by the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) reveal that the agency, founded for combatting terrorism, has a policy of spying daily on peaceful activists and protesters in the United States.

A Department of Homeland Security division produced daily briefings on "peaceful activist demonstrations" during the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests, documents released Tuesday revealed.

Government documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through its FOIA records requests reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency created after the September 11 attacks under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducts daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy.

The PCJF has filed a major brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in this matter. The brief is in opposition to the efforts by the NYPD to overturn U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff's ruling in favor of the protestors in this case.